Ranchi, April 6: Suspected Maoists gunned down four security guards of a power plant being built by a private company that’s investing more than Rs 7,000 crore in Jharkhand late last night, sending shockwaves among the other big ticket investors.

The guards were deployed at the main gate of the plant being constructed by Abhijeet Group’s Corporate Power Limited at Chakla village in Chandwa of Latehar district, about 150km from Ranchi. Six unidentified gunmen, who came in motorbikes, opened fire at them, killing four.

Another guard was critically injured and has been admitted to the RIMS. All the guards were local villagers who had got jobs with Abhijeet Group in lieu of land they had given up for the project.

Governor Syed Sibtey Razi convened an emergency meeting of senior members of the administration after Abhijeet Group CEO Arun Gupta met him and apprised him of the attack. Razi, who had only a few months ago chaired a landmark meeting of industrialists to boost investor confidence and assure them about quick clearances of their pending issues, has asked his adviser T.P. Sinha, director-general of police V.D. Ram and principal secretary Sudhir Tripathi to step up security. Ram informed Razi that Special Auxiliary Force had been deployed at the site, while Razi’s advisers decided to get a nod from the Election Commission before initiating work on forming a state-level industrial security force.

Not far from the Abhijeet Group site, which was attacked is the place where Essar Power Jharkhand Limited is coming up with a 1,200MW power plant. In fact, Essar has been allotted the Chakla coal block, while Abhijeet Group has got the nearby Chittarpur coal block for use in their projects.

“We are still wondering why ultra-Left rebels would kill four innocent security guards,” said Jayant Jaipal Singh, senior manager (corporate affairs) of Essar Steels Jharkhand Limited.

According to the police, the gunmen tied the hands of the four guards — Ram Veerpal Lohra (32), Ram Dular Shaw (35), Altaf Khan (37) and Vishu Oroan (30) — before shooting them. The gunmen could not tie up Karma Oroan, as he fled the spot, but they managed to fire at him, injuring him.